Communities of ants (Formicidae) in lowland rainforests of New Guinea

Ants are most abundant and ecologically dominant insects in tropical forest ecosystem. This study investigate community structure and diversity patterns of ground-foraging and arboreal ants in primary and secondary lowland forest using various methods, such as

leaf litter Winkler extractors, bait traps, pitfall traps and hand collecting. Combination of these methods allows us to study in detail local species richness of ground-foraging ants, the beta-diversity between different areas in PNG, as well as the impact of disturbance on ants communities. This project is presently being expanded into a complete survey of ant communities in 1 ha of primary and 1 ha of secondary lowland forest.

Study leaders at our Center: Milan Janda, Petr Klimes, Cliffson Idigel, and Maling Rimandai

Pictures: [ Ant studies ]